NVIDIA Begins to Fight Market Share Back from ATI - Research.

The market of graphics devices for the PCs continues to grow at a pretty rapid pace, according to market research firm Jon Peddie Research. But while the two largest players in the market – ATI Technologies and Intel Corp. – stayed inline with the industrial trends, NVIDIA Corp., the No.3, demonstrated nearly 25% sequential increase in its shipments, significantly improving its market share.

68.4 Million PC Graphics Devices Shipped

Jon Peddie Research (JPR) estimates that approximately 68.4 million PC graphics devices shipped from eight suppliers in Q3 2005, an 11.6% increase over the previous quarter and an 8.2% increase over the same period the previous year.

Intel saw a 6.4% sequential increase in graphics shipments in Q3 2005 and was the largest supplier of PC graphics devices worldwide, but the company’s share of the total graphics market declined slightly during the period. ATI remained the second largest supplier in the quarter with an 8.8% sequential increase in shipments and essentially flat market share. NVIDIA was the third largest supplier in Q3 2005, with a 24.9% sequential increase in shipments and increased market share.

Overall, Intel claimed 36.9% of the desktop graphics market, ATI held 23.6%, and Nvidia held 22.0% market share. While Intel was the largest supplier of desktop graphics during the period, the company’s segment market share declined sequentially. Meanwhile, ATI’s lead over NVIDIA in the desktop segment narrowed as compared to the prior quarter. In Q3 2005, ATI’s desktop graphics shipments grew 7.6% sequentially while NVIDIA’s desktop shipments grew 28.3%.

JPR said that Santa Clara, California-based graphics chip designer’s gains on the desktop side came from its standalone GPU products, shipments of which increased 20.0% during the quarter, as well as from its line of integrated graphics devices, shipments of which increased more than three-fold during the period.

Discrete Desktop Segment Grows 10% Sequentially

About 20.2 million standalone graphics cards were supplied during the quarter, which is 10.3% more compared to the previous quarter.

“ATI and NVIDIA continued to dominate the desktop GPU market in the third quarter, but with a shift in relative positions,” said Lisa Epstein, a senior analyst at Jon Peddie Research.

On the discrete side, NVIDIA grew its segment share from 46.3% in Q2 2005 to 50.4% in Q3 2005. ATI’s discrete desktop share fell from 51.8% in Q2 2005 to 47.9% in Q3 2005.

“NVIDIA had trailed ATI in the discrete desktop segment for four consecutive quarters. However, with the launch of its flagship GeForce 7 series and the continued success of the GeForce 6 series, NVIDIA was able to regain lost segment share in Q3 2005. The delays ATI experienced in bringing its latest generation GPU technology to market also assisted NVIDIA in growing share during the period,” Ms. Epstein concluded.

Mobile Market Being Taken by Integrated Graphics by Storm

The research firm estimates that approximately 17.4 million mobile graphics devices shipped in Q3 2005, 12.6 million of which were integrated chipsets for notebooks. The mobile graphics segment saw quarterly growth of 17.1% with integrated mobile shipments increasing 25.8% sequentially. Discrete mobile shipments were essentially flat during the period.

Mobile chipsets with integrated graphics shipped in record numbers during the period and also claimed record share of 72.4% in the mobile graphics market, up from 67.2% share in the prior quarter and 52.4% share in the same period a year ago. ATI helped drive growth in the mobile chipsets with integrated graphics segment during the quarter with shipments of its RADEON XPRESS 200M solution. With numerous design wins for this part, the company saw a 40% sequential increase in mobile chipsets with built-in graphics core shipments during the quarter. Intel grew its mobile chipsets with integrated graphics shipments 25.8% during the quarter and remained the largest graphics supplier to the mobile PC market after surpassing ATI to claim this title in Q1 2005.